Customer Reviews

Fantasy Art (Learn to Draw (HarperCollins))

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The book teaches the reader basic technics of drawing, focusing on certain figures and objects common to the fantasy world. I found it excellent in starting to learn how to draw these figures (from nearly nothing), and how to use the basic figures I have learned, to draw others - made by my imagination. The only fallback in this book - as in any is that you only learn the basics and are left with a limited bank of figures you know to draw well (usually from only one point of view) and with a lot more in your mind's eye.

For conclusion: the books gives you the basic tools, and does that well. But only the basics...

Mike Jeffries offers a lot of suggestions on how to draw, technique, ideas, etc. But for anyone who knows how to draw already, this is not a book to help you draw in a different genre. This is a from-the-ground-up drawing book.

Mike Jefferies's illustrations are interesting but I wasn't too impressed. Supposedly this book is for beginners, but from looking through the book numerous times, I've come to the conclusion that this book is not for beginners. Jefferies has his own personal style that he presents in the book as his idea of fantasy art, which quite doesn't cover basics. While Jefferies gives examples of creatures, people, and places in the fantasy world, the illustrations he provides are too difficult for a beginner to attain. What you are presented with are one or two rough outlines with the finished drawing. To a beginner this would be frustrating and there will be question "How in the world did Jefferies do that?" Based on the techniques that produced the illustrations, I assume that Jefferies's intended audience is the intermediary artist: someone who has drawing experience but is interested in expanding their horizons by looking at other artistic areas such as fantasy. For beginners, I recommend Christopher Hart's book "How to Draw Fantasy Characters", which offers basic how-to-illustrations on how to draw mythical beings such as wizards, mermaids, genies, giants, unicorns, etc. Once someone has managed to familiarize his or herself with the various fantasy beings and drawing them, I would then recommend Jefferies's book as a reference for ideas to develop one's own personal style and to expand one's creativity.